Monday night’s fire at an apartment complex at 110 Woodbridge Ave. started inside a basement dryer, Ansonia Fire Marshal Ralph Tingley said.
“It appears someone put a foam pillow that was put inside the dryer,” the fire marshal said. “There was also a build up of lint in the dryer.”
One person was burned attempting to put out the fire, which was reported at the Beaver Brook apartments at 9 p.m. Oct. 15.
The fire caused extensive damage to the apartment’s basement. Two other apartments were damaged by smoke. Firefighters carved holes in the roof to make sure the flames hadn’t spread.
The U.S. Fire Administration issued a report in August saying there are roughly 2,900 dryer fires per year in residential buildings. The National Fire Protection Agency publishes statistics saying that most dryer fires are caused by the fact the machines hadn’t been cleaned.
Tingley offered the following tips to prevent dryer fires:
- Do not use the dryer without a lint filter
- Clean the lint filter before every use
- Make sure the dryer has sufficient space around it and no combustibles are nearby
- Do not run it while asleep or out of the house
- Make sure your smoke detectors are working properly
